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Heat and Temperature.
Heat is a form of energy and is measured in Joules.
Scientists use the word "thermal" to mean "heat".
It does not matter whether you
say "heat
energy" or "thermal energy"
they both mean the same thing.
Temperature is a measure of how hot something
is
and is measured in °C (degree
Celsius).
Heat is related to temperature but the two are not the
same.
Imagine that you have a
bucket full of water and a cup
full of water
both at 25 °C.
If you add the same amount of heat
energy (for example 50,000J) to both
you would find that the temperature of
the cup of water
increases by much more than the temperature of the bucket of water.

Temperature is a
measure of the kinetic energy of
the particles
(how fast they are going).
Temperature does not depend on the mass of the substance
(how many particles there are).
The amount of heat energy which a
substance has does depend on its mass.
If you double the mass, you must double
the heat energy
to heat it to the same temperature.
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Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.